Posts Tagged ‘Conservative Group on SGC’

Plans to halve staff numbers at the Ashfield prison facility in Pucklechurch will come as a ‘hammer blow’ to the local community, according to the village’s campaigning councillors.

Serco Group plc – the contractors who manage and operate the facility – have announced 194 job losses as part of wider plans spearheaded by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), part of the Ministry of Justice, to convert the young offenders institution to an adult male category C sex offenders prison.

Local councillors have been told that the number of staff required to work with adult category C prisoners compared to young people is significantly less as the new adult population does not require the same high levels of supervision or teaching.

Serco’s announcement comes following the conclusion of contractual negotiations with NOMS that will see the prison change take effect from 1st July.

All young people previously at Ashfield have now left the facility and 60 sex offenders a week are expected to arrive at the prison, which will see its full 400 capacity reached by the end of August.

Local Conservative Boyd Valley councillors Ben Stokes and Steve Reade have been leading the campaign against the plans on behalf of local people – they invited prison chiefs to a public meeting, carried out a survey of village residents, triggered an emergency vote on the plans at South Gloucestershire Council and have called for a local community liaison group to be formed.

A new park and ride on the A4174 Ring Road in South Gloucestershire has moved a step closer with the granting of planning permission.

A 264-space ‘multi-modal interchange’ (MMI) will be accessed off the Rosary Roundabout opposite Sainsbury’s Emersons Green store and is being built as part of the new Emersons Green East development, which has permission for over 2,500 new homes, two primary schools and land for a new secondary school.

After the developers agreed to make contributions towards improving local infrastructure, planning permission for the park and ride was granted on 11th January.

The park and ride – which forms part of the £102m North Fringe to Hengrove rapid transit scheme – has to be built by the time the 400th new home is completed and will also be funded by the developer.

Local Conservative councillors for Emersons Green, Colin Hunt, Dave Kearns and James Hunt, have welcomed this latest stage as they have been campaigning for years for measures to be introduced to ease traffic congestion on the Ring Road.

They said:

“It’s good news that after many years of campaigning we have finally reached the stage where planning permission has been granted.”

“The idea of this park and ride is to attract commuters travelling along the Ring Road towards to the M32 to use this new Park and Ride so we can reduce traffic congestion further along the A4174 and improve people’s journey times.”

“Just like the Parkway Park and Ride, we want to see this built well before the housing development is completed so we do not have to play catch up when all the new residents have moved in.”

“We now have to keep up the pressure on the developers to get on and build it as quickly as possible and not delay development as has happened elsewhere in South Gloucestershire – there are no more excuses.”

Frenchay Hospital campaigners grilled health bosses at a council meeting today (Wednesday 22nd January) about the latest uncertainty that hangs over a new community hospital.

Plans for Frenchay’s new community hospital – now known as a Health and Social Care Centre – were only agreed last year and envisaged a greater range of services than that proposed in the original Bristol Health Services Plan drawn up by the previous Labour government in 2005.

But a new review of services at Frenchay has recently been jointly launched by the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust Cluster and local GP-led Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The review had been due to report in March 2013, but councillors were told at today’s meeting of South Gloucestershire Council’s Public Health and Health Scrutiny Committee that they would have to wait longer before any decision would be made and no specific date was forthcoming.

Local MPs Jack Lopresti and Chris Skidmore met recently with the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP, to raise their concerns over the hospital delay.

Speaking during the meeting, Cllr John Godwin (Con, Winterbourne), a former Chairman of the Save Frenchay Hospital Group who worked on the community hospital project group, said:

“As a member of the Frenchay Hospital project group, we carefully gathered plenty of data on local health needs and future projections and so it’s unclear what has changed in such a short time in order to justify this latest review and all the uncertainty and local concern that it has caused.”

After the meeting, he added:

“It was disappointing to hear the inability of the local NHS to give us and the local community a clear date by which we will know what changes, if any, they plan to make to our planned new community hospital.”

Frenchay Hospital campaigners are to ask for South Gloucestershire Council’s support in their efforts to end the latest uncertainty that hangs over a new community hospital.

Plans for Frenchay’s new community hospital – now known as a Health and Social Care Centre – were only agreed last year and envisaged a greater range of services than that proposed in the original Bristol Health Services Plan drawn up by the previous Labour government in 2005.

But a new review of services at Frenchay has recently been jointly launched by the NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust Cluster and the local GP-led Clinical Commissioning Group. The review is due to report in March 2013.

In response to this, a motion has been tabled for debate by the South Gloucestershire Conservative Group at the Full Council meeting on Wednesday 12th December, asking for united and cross-party support for the hospital plans.

Cllr John Godwin (Con, Winterbourne), a former Chairman of the Save Frenchay Hospital Group who worked on the community hospital project group, is putting forward the motion.

He said:

“The future of Frenchay Hospital is an incredibly important and emotive local issue ever since the previous government decided to downgrade our beloved hospital – this latest review is causing a great deal of concern in our community.”

“I fought hard as part of the Frenchay Hospital project group to secure the maximum possible health services to be provided at Frenchay and I’m not about to stop now.”

“Having secured a promise for more services than originally planned in 2005, we really need to end the uncertainty as soon as possible.”

“We want all parties on South Gloucestershire Council to support the Frenchay Health and Social Care Centre as promised to local people and the well-established and comprehensive evidence base that underpins it.”